The Pattison company employs 34,000 people worldwide and encompasses the auto, food, entertainment, packaging, financial, media and retail industries, as well as real estate, the magazine said on its website.

The Pattison company is the third-largest in Canada, and is run by 84-year-old Pattison, who still goes to work every day.

Pattison’s net worth “ballooned” by $1.1 billion this year when Forbes journalists learned of his retail and real estate holdings in Western Canada. In 2012, his fortune was listed as only $4.3 billion.

Pattison has said he has no knowledge of how Forbes magazine does its accounting and does not talk publicly about his ranking.

The richest Canadian is David Thomson, whose family owns Thomson-Reuters company and has an estimated net worth of $20 billion to put him NO. 24 in the world as well as a part stake in the Winnipeg Jets and majority ownership of the Globe and Mail newspaper.

Galen Weston, owner of Loblaw company, is the second-richest person in Canada at $8.2 billion.

Meanwhile, Mexico's Carlos Slim remains the world's richest man for the fourth year in a row, according to Forbes, while Warren Buffett dropped out of the top three for the first time since 2000.

A record 1,426 people around the world made Forbes magazine's latest annual tally of billionaires, up 16 per cent from last year. Their average net worth was $3.8 billion, rising 3 per cent from 2012. The total net worth for the list's billionaires was $5.4 trillion compared with $4.6 trillion a year ago.

Hong Kong businessman Li Ka-shing, 84, whose holdings include a signifcant stake in Calgary-based Husky Energy Inc., was No. 8 on the list with a fortune estimated at US$31 billion. He maintained his status as the richest man in the former British colony, now a semi-autonomous part of China.

The U.S. continued to house the most billionaires in the world, with 442 of them. It was followed by the Asia-Pacific region, with Europe rounding out the top three.

There were 210 new faces on the list, with Forbes saying many were helped by rebounding equity markets and strong consumer brands.

Slim's net worth increased to $73 billion from $69 billion a year earlier. Bill Gates of Microsoft Corp. held on to second place with a net worth of $67 billion.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s Buffett slipped to the fourth spot with a $53.5 billion net worth. Buffett was surpassed by Spanish clothier Amancio Ortega, who jumped two spots from 2012 with a net worth of $57 billion.

While Buffett dropped in the rankings, he added $9.5 billion to his net worth — making him the second-biggest gainer of the year. The largest gainer was Ortega, who added $19.5 billion to his net worth.

There were 138 women on the list, up from 2012's 104. Liliane Bettencourt — whose family owns a stake in L'Oreal — is the world's richest woman with a net worth of $30 billion.

Brazil's Eike Batista had the biggest drop in his net worth, with it declining $19.4 billion from the previous year. Facebook's Zuckerberg saw his net worth fall to $13.3 billion from $17.5 billion. His ranking fell to No. 66 from No. 35 in 2012.

There were 60 people that dropped off the list entirely, including Zynga's Mark Pincus and former Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon.

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